House <y Garden 
The elements which are considered necessary 
to the make-up of the architect are enumer¬ 
ated, and we are to judge of their importance 
by the order in which they are given. 
First we are told that a knowledge of 
materials, of mathematics and of statics is 
certainly necessary. Next comes a knowledge 
of business matters, contracts, specifications, 
the inspection of work and the adjustment 
of responsibilities. At last it is added that 
“ The architect must have an inherent good 
taste” and that “He must possess the knowl¬ 
edge that distinguishes the connoisseur, car¬ 
ried to the point of a technical acquaintance 
with historic precedents and the shibboleths 
of styles.” Can such a combination produce 
architecture ? Far from being able to pro¬ 
duce anything above artistic mediocrity, it is 
certain that it is just this combination to 
which the mediocrity of to-day is due. The 
fact is that no enduring creations of architec¬ 
ture are ever brought forth by the personality 
to which a “ good taste ” and “ the knowl¬ 
edge which distinguishes the connoisseur ” 
are merely saddled on at the last. Nor are 
they achieved by the men who go into the 
business as an investment. The calculation 
of personal expense and gain has been a 
secondary one to those who are rearing the 
buildings destined to be real monuments for 
the future. These men have been impelled 
to their work by innate tendencies of mind 
and a natural impulse to express their esthetic 
feelings in that particular way and in no 
other. 
Eight years of academic preparation is 
given in the article quoted as the preliminary 
for the architect’s career. The description of 
his success is marked by the glittering details 
of a huge office force turning out the draw¬ 
ings for a twenty-story skyscraper in as many 
days and the large sum which comes to the 
architect in a short time if he only know 
how to properly “ push ” the work of con¬ 
struction. Much as it is to be desired that a 
liberal academic education will come to be 
the equipment of every architect, it is the ex¬ 
ception of the present that the academic men 
receive the largest returns for their prepara¬ 
tion. Those who are drawing the most 
wealth from architecture so-called have, as a 
rule, seen the least of the academies. The 
picture given of the architect’s office force of 
highly salaried and Paris-trained men is not 
general to this country. Whether or not it 
may be so in the future, it is now only true 
of conditions in New York City and par¬ 
tially true of those in Boston and Chicago. 
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THE POSTER OF THE TURIN EXHIBITION 
29 
